


Spend my Life Waiting

by coolestnerdaround



Series: Nora [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: F/M, little bit destiel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-11
Updated: 2013-01-11
Packaged: 2017-11-25 03:31:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/634658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coolestnerdaround/pseuds/coolestnerdaround
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean and Sam are investigating a demon possession when Dean accidentally runs into Nora again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spend my Life Waiting

**Author's Note:**

> Sequel to "I Will"
> 
> Season 6. Let's pretend the whole "Lisa" storyline never happened. The whole "collecting souls" thing is mentioned, but not revealed.

Sammy was gone. Dean lived with this fact every minute. Sammy was gone, with Lucifer, in hell. He had spent the last year trying to find a way to bring him back. Cas had no answers, though Dean barely had a chance to ask him. Cas was never around anymore. He was trying to “fix” Heaven, whatever that meant.

Dean had his own fixing to do. Sam may have jumped into the cage to save him, but Dean was going to save Sam. Yes, Sam had asked him to not save him. He had asked Dean to have a normal life, but what the hell was he supposed to do? Where was he supposed to go and live this normal life?

He had told all this to Nora in their phone calls. Every few months Nora would see a number light up her phone and no matter what was going on, working, out with friends or sleeping she would take the call and listen as Dean drank and recounted his latest failed attempt to bring Sam back. He told her things he would never tell anyone else, feelings, because she wasn’t a part of all this, she could know how lost he felt. She kept telling him to take a break, to come stay with her, to stop torturing himself, it’s what Sam wanted, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t stop because he was afraid if he did, he wouldn’t start again. He might become... happy, and forget...

That was all until the night when Dean was attacked by the Djinn he happened to stumble upon... and Sam saved him.

 

4 Months Later

 

Another stupid suburb of another city that he couldn’t remember the name of. Another case of possible demon possession. A man seemingly goes crazy and kills his wife and then himself. The police report Sam hacked into had an interview with the couple’s teenager who said his dad’s eyes flashed black. Demon. Not exactly special, but Sam, Bobby, and Cas had no leads on this purgatory thing that everyone seems so keen on. Sam had his soul back and seemed to be recovering from his recent hell flashback, so... a job. Why not?

Dean and Sam were leaving the murdered couple’s house. Everything looked clean, like nothing had happened. It was a bust, they couldn’t even smell sulfur. The house too, like the job, was nothing special. Ordinary house on an ordinary street, park on the corner and an apartment building across from it.

“Well that sucked,” Dean muttered as he hopped down the steps pulling the impala keys out of his pocket. He stood by the car waiting for Sam to lock up the house. He stared aimlessly down the street when movement caught his eye. Someone was getting out of a car parked on the road and walking across the street into the apartment building. It was Nora.

He thought, he was pretty sure. She looked different, wearing a dress and some glasses, but her hair was the same. She didn’t live here, in this city, though. He hadn’t talked to her since Sam had come back, 4 months. She called him once, about 2 months ago, but he hadn’t picked up, hadn’t answered. Sam was the priority. There she was though. Should he call her, tell her he had seen her? She’s probably mad he didn’t call her back. That’s why she hadn’t tried calling again.

“Hey,” Sam said, from the other side of the car, waking Dean from his thoughts, “You OK? What are you looking at?” Dean looked over to Sam, “Nothing,” then looks back down the road. She was gone, inside the apartment building he assumed.

“Let’s head back to the motel. I’m guessing you want to do a bunch of research on this guy?” Dean nodded to the house while opening the car door.

“Usually how it goes,” Sam replied, following his big brother’s lead and ducking into the car.

-

 

A few hours and several more beers later, all they had learned about this possessed man was he was boring boring boring. While Sam tapped away on his keyboard, Dean had taking to just sitting back in his chair drinking, he kept looking at his phone as though expecting Nora to suddenly call. Maybe she had driven past the Impala and recognized it. Not that she had really seen it before, but maybe....

“Sammy, I’m going out,” Dean suddenly stood up and grabbed the Impala keys.

“So I have to stay here researching, while to go out drinking and hooking up with girls?” Sam accused. He thought he didn’t have to ask where Dean was headed.

“Usually how it goes, right?” Dean parroted from earlier and walked out the motel door.

-

Dean stood outside the apartment number 206, hesitant to knock. He had found which apartment was hers from the names on the mailboxes. He still wasn’t entirely sure if this was a good idea or not. He should have called her first. Or called her back a few months ago. He should have done something. So he did, he knocked. When Nora opened the door her mouth dropped.

“Oh my god,” she said. Dean just awkwardly said “Hey.”

“What are you doing here?” Nora asked, still looking shocked. Dean shifted awkwardly, “Sam and I have a case in town.” Nora nodded, and her face transitioned from shocked to confused, “But I mean at my apartment, how did you know I lived here?”

Dean finally catching on, quickly said, “Oh the case is just down the street. I saw you walking in here today.” Nora gave him a little smile, “Oh. Little creepy.” Her smile widened, she was joking with him.

“Good creepy?” Dean joked back. Nora smiled again, “Good creepy.” They both smiled, they both fell silent, standing in her doorway. Nora then looked down at the floor, smile fading.

“I haven’t seen you in over a year. I haven’t talked to you in over 4 months,” she looked back up to Dean’s face, “I kind of thought you were dead.” It was Dean’s turn to look at the floor.

“I’m sorry, I- I should have called you back, but I found Sammy; I got him back.” Nora still looked a little sad, but replied quietly, “That’s. Good.” They both fell silent again before Nora jumped a little, “Geez I’m sorry, you’re just standing out there, come in.” She pulled the door wider so Dean could step through.

He looked around the small room and saw a couch, and TV in the living area which encompassed the left side of the room. The right side had a small kitchen and dining area. A hallway opened in middle of the room heading back into the rest of the apartment. There wasn’t much decoration besides a few photos of family and friends hanging on the wall.

“Grab a seat,” Nora gestured to the couch and went to the kitchen, “You want a beer?”

“Sure thanks,” Dean accepted as he was sitting down, “How long have you lived here?”

“About 6 months,” her voice muffled as she reached into the refrigerator for two bottles, “When my last lease was up I thought a new city sounded fun, so got a job and moved here.”

“Why here?” Dean asked. Nora shrugged as she opened the bottles. She brought him the beer and sat at the opposite end of the couch. Once again the pair descended into awkward silence. Finally, Nora asked, “What happened with Sam?”

“No, let’s not talk about that, let’s talk about something better... talk about you or something.” Dean fiddled with the bottle in his hand, then remembered: “Did you go to college?” Nora raised her eyebrows a little surprised at such a normal question. Nothing was ever normal with Dean.

“Uh, yeah, I majored in English.” It was Dean’s turn to raise his eyebrows.

“I know,” Nora responded to the gesture, “It’s kind of useless, but it’s only thing I really wanted to learn. I minored in Journalism so now I just write press releases for companies.”

“Press releases,” Dean deadpanned.

“Are you laughing at me?” Nora teased, “Yes, hey I get my writing in the paper at least once a month.”

“You’re famous,” Dean teased. Nora laughed and whatever awkward feeling that was left broke. Just like the last time they saw each other, the two launched into talking for hours except this time it was Nora telling stories of her childhood and Dean discovering things he had never experienced. The beers were long gone, bottles empty and forgotten on the coffee table. The two had subconsciously drifted closer together.

Finally around 2 am Nora had gotten to a story about one specific Christmas present, “Well it’s a Furby. They were a crazy hit; everyone wanted one.”

“A Furby?” Dean felt like Cas, “What is that?”

“It’s this little fuzzy robotic things and it would blink at you and it talked,” Nora’s hands flew around trying to create an invisible picture for Dean, “And it wouldn’t shut up! One night I locked it in the back of my closet just so I could sleep. It kind of sounded a little evil. It- it looked like a Gremlin actually.”

“Oh shit that was a kids toy?” Dean had of course seen the movie in some motel over the years. Nora laughed, “Yes, but everyone had one! It was the “must have present” for that year! In fact my dad couldn’t even get them before Christmas. He took my sister and I to the department store the minute it opened the day after Christmas to get one.” 

Nora smiled at memory, but Dean awkwardly smiled and nodded. He discovered his beer bottle again and picked it up, swirling the leftover foam around the bottom. Nora’s smile faltered, realizing what she said, “Sorry.”

“No, don’t be sorry,” Dean said, “It sounds like you have a great dad. Your dad bought you a little demon and my dad taught me to kill them.” Nora inhaled deeply, not knowing if what he said was a joke. So instead she asked, “You said you guys were here working on a case, what about?” Dean seemed to wake up from a dark reverie, “Uh some guy down the street pulled a murder suicide, possessed sounds like.”

“What do you do about that? Cause the demon’s gone already right?” Nora asked.

“Yeah it should be gone, but sometimes why people are possessed is a bigger deal than the actual possession. But Sam’s researching the guy now, he’ll figure it out.”

“And then you guys just drive off into the sunset,” Nora tried teasing. Dean actually smiled, “Don’t sound so sad.” Nora smiled at him as they fell into a silence that this time was no where close to awkward. She nodded toward the bottle in his hands, “Are you done with that?” He nodded and handed it over. She grabbed her own empty bottle and walked to the recycling bin. After throwing them in she turned around and realized Dean had followed her.

Nora jumped, “Oh geez you move really quiet-”

Dean kissed her. Wrapped his arms around her and kissed her and she kissed him back as they moved back toward her bedroom.

-

 

The next morning when Nora woke up she could tell it was late. The sun was attempting to shine through her eyelids. She silently panicked for a minute before remembering it was Sunday and settled back into her pillow. She could feel the arm wrapped around her waist and Dean leaning in against her back and settled into that too and opened her eyes to check the time. Standing by her bed looking down at them was Castiel.

“Oh my god!” she shouting jumping and accidentally elbowing Dean in the stomach.

“What the hell?” Dean muttered finally waking up. Nora pulled her sheets up and glared at the angel, trench coat included.

“Castiel I told you last time you can’t just appear in my apartment!” she snapped.

“I wasn’t,” Cas replied in his low gravel voice, “I was appearing to Dean. He happened to be in your apartment.” Nora looked over to Dean who had sat up and was rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Castiel directed his attention to Dean, “You weren’t answering your phone. Sam asked me to find you. He said he found something.”

“Oh shit, uh,” he looked around for pants which were on the other side of the room, “Cas get out.” There was the familiar whoosh and the angel was gone.

“Well, that was a nice wake up call,” Nora half-joked, still angry that Cas couldn’t at LEAST learn to knock.

“Sorry, I’ve got to go,” he was in the middle of stuffing his legs into his pants when he paused, “Do you want to come?”

“What?”

“Yeah, you could help or something,” Dean had found one of his shirts and threw it on. Nora was still sitting on the bed in astonishment.

“Last time I practically had sell you my liver to let me help.”

“Well you handled yourself pretty well,” another shirt on.

“I got poisoned and you had to cut something from my neck,” she reminded.

“Yeah and you handled it pretty pretty well,” jacket found, “Do you want to come or not?”

“Yeah! Get out I need to change,” she shooed him from the bedroom.

“Oh come on, we just-”

“Get out,” she snapped and Dean quickly left.

-

 

15 minutes later the three were in the Impala heading to an address Sam had given Cas. Nora grabbed shotgun which meant Cas was in the back and an incredible thick silence had settled in the car. Finally, Nora turned to the angel.

“So Castiel, how you been?” Cas glared at Nora, though to be fair, she was pretty sure that’s just how his face looked, “I exploded.” Nora paused and mimed an explosion with her hands, “Like... boom, explosion?”

“There was no ‘boom’, Lucifer snapped his fingers and every particle of my being separated.” Nora’s jaw dropped. She turned to Dean with a look of shock and confusion, he backed Cas up, “Uh, yeah Lucifer was inside Sam and made Cas explode. Can we not talk about this?” He reached down and turned on the radio. Nora shrunk in the front seat, deciding she didn’t like talking to the angel, and still trying to understand everything they had just told her. Once again an uncomfortable silence descended upon the car.

-

An unbearably long 10 minutes later they reached a nice, normal looking street and pulled up to Sam who was standing in front of a nice, normal looking house. When Nora got out of the the car Sam looked surprised, but then smiled.

“What are doing here?” he asked.

“I live here now,” she explained. Sam turned to Dean, “This is who you went to see last night?”

“Yup,” Dean stared Sam down as though daring him to say something.

“And you brought her along on a demon hunt,” Sam continued ignoring the look.

“She seemed pretty eager last time,” Dean deadpanned.

“She was poisoned,” Sam replied.

“Why do you two keep bringing that up?” Dean asked rhetorically, “What is happening here?” He gestured to the house. Sam begrudgingly followed Dean’s lead and dropped the topic.

“Well I when I was researching at this guy last night and the absolute only thing I could find was that he was committing tax fraud,” Sam began.

“Tax fraud?” Dean shot.

“Yes tax fraud and the guy that lives in this house was his partner,” Sam continued.

“I’m sorry,” Nora cut in, “But why would demons care about a couple of lousy accounts?”

“Exactly,” Dean backed her up. Instinctively they all turned to Cas who answered their looks with, “I don’t know.”

“So I figured we could go in as FBI and interview him about his partner and see what he says,” Sam suggested.

“Dean and I can go,” Cas suggested.

“Uh OK,” Dean agreed, “You two wait here.” He started up the walk to the house with Cas moving close behind. Nora moved over to stand by Sam, “So I’m pretty sure Castiel hates me, does that mean I’m not getting into heaven?” Nora asked half joking.

“Uh no,” Sam assured, “That is just a whole different story. Don’t ask.”

“Hey!” Dean called back to them, “The door’s hanging open.”

-

“Hello?” Sam called as the group entered the house, “FBI, is anyone here?” Nothing but silence responded.

“Smell that?” Dean asked.

“Yeah, sulfur,” Sam nodded.

“You and Cas look down around here,” he told Nora, “Sam and I will go upstairs; and here,” he handed her a little bottle of liquid, “Holy water, throw it on anybody who don’t seem right.” Nora nodded and took the little bottle. Sam drew out a large dagger with symbols on it and headed up the stairs. Nora and Castiel glanced at each other before they moved in different directions in the house.

Nora turned a corner and found herself in a large kitchen. There was definitely no one there. Across the room was sliding glass doors that led into the backyard, where she could see a child’s jungle gym. She started to move across the room to get a better look in the backyard when upstairs she heard Dean’s voice.

“Hey! What are you doing? Get out- Cas! No!” Nora ran into the living room in time to see Castiel blasted away with a beam of light. The voices upstairs started again, “No don’t!” A gunshot rang through the house. Nora rushed to the staircase, ‘Dumb to run TOWARD the gun, you know,’ she briefly thought, but continued. She barely hit the first step when a cloud of smoke crashed into her, knocking her to the floor and everything went black.

-

Dean and Sam watched as the man used the seal to send Cas away. Then the possessed man shot himself. It happened too quickly to stop it. He was dead. They watched as the demon streamed out of him in the form of black smoke and twisted down the staircase. The brothers went crashing down the stairs only to find Nora lying at the base eyes closed.

“Shit,” Dean kneeled down beside her and shook her shoulder, “Hey can you hear me?”

“Aw Dean, you’re so sweet,” Nora said, then opened her eyes to reveal they were covered in black, possessed. It blinked and they looked normal again, “You really care, don’t you?” Then it grabbed the front of Dean’s shirt and threw him into the living room. The demon using Nora’s body stood just as Sam was charging. Before he could do anything it grabbed Sam and threw him into a wall, knocking him out.

“Not now little bro, right now I want to talk to the bigger Winchester,” she turned toward Dean, “Well figuratively speaking. I mean compared to him you’re like 3 feet tall”.” It walked up to Dean who was just getting up after crashing into a couch.

“Get out of her,” he snarled.

“Or what?” the demon asked him, “I’m sure you don’t want to hurt her. Your stuff for an exorcism is alllll the way in your very nice car and that angel isn’t coming back here anytime soon.”

"How do you even know the seal to send angels to who-knows-where?" Dean didn’t know what to do yet, so stall, stalling’s good.

"Please Dean," the demon sneered, "Once you boys started painting that thing everywhere it wasn't hard to figure out. And I could practically smell your angel boyfriend from a mile away."

“Cas not my boyfriend,” Dean snapped.

“Of course not since you spent the night with this one,” it gestured down to the body it was inhabiting and then looked over to a large mirror hanging on the wall, “She very pretty. You did good.”

“Get out now!”

“Don’t worry I’m not going to kill her. She’s not my type,” it smirked.

“So you’re type is the guy upstairs? And the couple a few days ago? What makes them special?”

“They were bad people. I mean tax fraud... not nice. And did you know the other man’s wife was cheating on him? Their souls are all definitely going to hell.”

“So you want people going to hell? Why?” The demon shrugged, “Well Dean we lost one of our torturers a few years ago and we’re kind of short staffed at the moment. Though to get out of here I’m going to have to kill you and your brother and you two have killed enough people to get a first class ticket to the lowest circle of hell. The position is yours if you still want it.” 

The demon flashed a toothy smile at Dean before launching a punch at him. He darted out of the way and grabbed Nora’s body slamming it against a wall. The demon laughed, “Yeah I bet you’d like pushing her up against a wall.”

“I’m not going to say it again, get.... out,” Dean was gripping onto her arms tight holding her against the wall. The demon leaned in close and whispered, “Make me.”

“No problem,” came Sam’s voice and he slammed the demon killing knife into Nora’s thigh. The demon screamed and began streaming out of Nora’s mouth as black smoke again; forcing Dean to back away with his arms up, shielding his face. They watched the demon disappear down into the floor. The demon was gone, and Dean quickly caught Nora as she fell toward the ground, and set her down gently. She leaned against the wall, clutching her thigh where the knife went in,

“I’m OK, I’m OK,” she reassured him, “Just I mean, my leg, ow,”

“Sorry,” Sam said, standing up rubbing his head.

“No it’s OK. Thank you,” Nora said. Sam nodded, “Uh Dean we better get out of here cause the gunshot and her leg...”

“Yeah let’s go,” he lifted Nora and moved so she could use him as a crutch with her arm over his shoulders. She smiled at him, “I think we’ve been here before.” Dean didn’t respond, just scowled as they hobbled out the door.

-

Back at Nora's apartment the brothers set her on the couch. Dean called to Cas who appeared quickly and healed Nora's leg. Dean was quieter than usual

"You still need to rest," Castiel told her. She nodded and laid back on the couch too tired to go to her bedroom. Dean kneeled down next to her, "Sam and I need to go and tie up the case, OK?"

"K, I'll talk to you later," Nora told him. Dean just stood up and left with Sam and Castiel. Moments later Nora fell asleep. 

When she woke up the sun had gone down. She looked around and realized she was alone. Her eyes caught the moon shining off something on her counter. She walked over and found a necklace with a pentagon shaped charm on it. Underneath it was a note that said, "Always wear it. It will protect against demons." No signature, but she knew it was Dean. Why didn't he just give this to her in person? The answer quickly dawned on her. He was leaving. Probably already gone, and he only left this note and necklace. Just as quickly as she had realized this when anger followed like a storm, building until something had to break through.

She found her phone and called Dean. Wildly, pacing back and forth in her living room she waited until she heard the message recording, "You should not have this number-"

"Asshole," she whispered as she hung up and called him again. This time he answered and before he could say anything Nora snapped, "What the fuck?"

"Hey!" she heard the slightly annoyed voice from the other end, but she again cut him off, "You can't just- you- you can't JUST leave. Were you even going to say goodbye to me?"

Dean sighed, "Hold on," she heard a door open and close and the sound of cars as he obviously walked outside from who knows where, "It's not really something I'm good at," Dean continued.

"That doesn't really matter to me. You can't just up and disappear and leave me while I'm sleeping. What type of person just leaves a note and a stupid necklace," she was talking faster and faster, she always did when she got mad.

"Are you wearing it?" Dean asked.

"What?!"

"Are you wearing the necklace?" he asked again. She almost shouted at him, "No! I'm not wearing the stupid-"

"Put it on," he ordered.

"Dean! I'm trying t-"

"Nora, put it on!" he snarled into the phone. Nora sighed and grabbed the necklace and pulled it over her head, "There it's on."

"Good, as long as you wear it, demons can't possess you," he explained.

"Oh my god this is why you just took off isn't it?" she realized, "You don't want me to get hurt again. I've told you this! You don't have to protect me! Both these times I knew I could get hurt-"

"But you shouldn't have to," Dean replied quietly, "You're a normal person with your dad and Furbys." Nora took a steadying breath, "You still shouldn't JUST LEAVE."

"What did you want me to do?" His own anger rose. "Stay with you? I can't do that! I-"

"You could have!" Nora interrupted, "You had an entire year and you could have come here and stayed with me!" Tears started to well up, 'Fuck! No, don't cry now!' she thought.

"Sam was in hell! I couldn't leave him there!" He was definitely shouting now, "You know! You told me, you wouldn't leave your sister alone!"

"My sister wasn't dead, Dean!" Nora was breathing heavily now, she felt like she had run a mile. Dean was silent on the other end of the phone, but he hadn't hung up. Nora fell onto her couch cursing herself for what she just said. Stupid things always come out faster than smart thoughts stop them. They were before silent for a long stretch of time. Both drowning in thoughts, but could think of nothing to say. Finally Nora made up her mind, "Don't call me anymore."

"What?"

"Don't call me. I can't talk to you and hope you'll show up at my door and then watch you leave. I'll spend my life waiting. So please..."

No answer

"Dean?" His voice came through, "Wear the necklace."

"I will."

"Goodbye," he said and hung up.

**Author's Note:**

> One more part to follow.


End file.
